This tip works for any partition of any NTFS formatted drive except the partition with the Windows system files on it.
Windows XP, like Windows 2000 before it, allows you to ‘mount’ drives as folders in a pre-existing logical drive. So if your computer has a 20 GB disk formatted as a single partition and volume (drive C:), you could purchase a second drive, partition and format it through the Disk Manager, and then instead of giving it its own drive letter, add it to your C: drive as a directory.
Any files added to that directory would, of course, be stored on the new disk.
This can come in handy—certain applications such as databases are extremely large, but may not support storing data on a logically separate drive.
As far as Windows is concerned, a drive mounted as a directory is just a directory. This can also cut down on storage confusion and it’s easy to do, though it can only be done with NTFS-formatted partitions.
Also, obviously, the boot partition cannot be used this way, although other partitions can be added to the boot partition.
If you have installed software on a partition you plan to mount as a directory, it is best to uninstall and reinstall it, since the move may stop the software from working correctly. Windows will warn you about this.
To mount a partition as a directory, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management> Storage >Disk Management. Then right-click on the partition you wish to mount as a directory in the lower pane of the graphical partition window.
Select ‘Change drive letter and paths…’ Remove the current option (if any), then click ‘Add’. Choose ‘Mount in the following empty NTFS folder’, browse to the desired volume, and add a directory for your drive. Click ‘OK’.
If you wish to return things to the way they were, simply repeat the procedure, removing the directory location and choosing a drive letter instead. The data on the drive will be unharmed.
(thanks to Digit for this tip)
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